University of Wisconsin Researcher Updates Current Study Findings on Health Insurance (Regional variation in healthcare usage for Medicare beneficiaries: a cross-sectional study based on the health and retirement study): Health Insurance

Health Policy and Law Daily

2022 SEP 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Current study results on health insurance have been published. According to news originating from Madison, Wisconsin, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To investigate whether regional variation changes with different beneficiary health insurance coverage types. A cross-sectional study of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in 2018 was used.”

The news editors obtained a quote from the research from University of Wisconsin: “Medicare beneficiaries only covered by Medicare (group 1) are compared with those covered by Medicare and other health insurance (group 2). Outcomes included healthcare usage measures: (1) whether beneficiaries have a hospital stay and (2) the number for those with at least one stay; (3) whether beneficiaries have a doctor’s visit and (4) the number for those with at least one visit. We compared healthcare usage in both groups across the five regions: (1) New England and Mid-Atlantic; (2) East North Central and West North Central; (3) South Atlantic; (4) East South Central and West South Central; (5) Mountain and Pacific. We used logistic regression for binary outcomes and negative binomial regression for count outcomes in each group. Participants We identified 8749 Medicare beneficiaries, of which 4098 in group 1 and 4651 in group 2. Residents in all non-reference regions had a significantly lower probability of seeking a doctor’s visit in group 1 (OR with 95% CI 0.606 (0.374 to 0.982), 0.619 (0.392 to 0.977), 0.472 (0.299 to 0.746) and 0.618 (0.386 to 0.990) in the order of above regions, respectively), which is not significant in group 2. Residents in most non-reference regions (except South Atlantic) had a significantly fewer number of seeking a hospital stay in group 2 (incident rate ratio (IRR) with 95% CI 0.797 (0.691 to 0.919), 0.740 (0.643 to 0.865), 0.726 (0.613 to 0.859) in the order of above regions, respectively), which is not significant in group 1.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Regional variation in the likelihood of having a doctor’s visit was reduced in Medicare beneficiaries covered by supplemental health insurance. Regional variation in hospital stays was accentuated among Medicare beneficiaries covered by supplemental health insurance.”

For more information on this research see: Regional variation in healthcare usage for Medicare beneficiaries: a cross-sectional study based on the health and retirement study. BMJ Open, 2022,12(8). (BMJ Open - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/). The publisher for BMJ Open is BMJ Publishing Group.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061375.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Dian Luo, Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States.